A longtime reader checked-in today with one more story of Internet generational change. We used to call it just disintermediation, but in its later stages this syndrome requires new consumers who may have never even visited a bookstore… or had to.

“The family went to Borders today to look for a book or two. The store is closing. I always liked that store on the Middle River in Fort Lauderdale; watching the boats go by as I read the paper. Anyway we went, the lines were long in checkout, and the discounts were 20 to 40 percent. So I went to IT to wander around, found a few books, figured the 20-40 percent off scanned the bar code with my iPhone Amazon applet and bought with one click at Amazon. Even with the Borders discount Amazon was still cheaper.

Sorry Borders, I did like your coffee, but One-Click is one kick too much.”

88 Comments

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Had an interesting presentation at the North Texas PC Users Group today by a reporter from the Dallas Morning News. One of the topics he covered was the imminent addition of a paywall to the DMN site. I got the opportunity to ask him several questions.

Q: What is in the New York Times that is worth paying for?
A: (puzzled look)

Q: What is in the DMN that is worth paying for?
A: (Chuckling) Why, my column, of course…

Q: Why not just sell your column to me directly? Why do you need the DMN?
A: I don’t think I could make it as a freelancer. Bloggers just don’t make any money. And if I did try to make a living that way, I’d end up writing 5% of the time, and spending the other 95% marketing. I don’t want to market. I want to write. And I want to have the resources to visit trades shows and other events.

I got to ask several other questions. I got the feel that while the reporter appears to be very good at what he does, he is very worried about the future of DMN. Personally, I think DMN is pretty much doomed unless they figure out a better business model.

The publishing businesses live in interesting times. I think the tipover point is close at hand. The hand-held ebook readers are almost good enough, and will be good enough in another 2-3 years. The paper publication is going away.

Charlie
February 19, 2011 at 10:42 pm

The DMN is owned by Belo Corp – the same ones who sank a 100 million into the Cue Cat!

asmiller-ke6seh
February 21, 2011 at 10:45 am

CUE CAT! Wow! That takes me back. Let me see…I think I still have that white plastic cat in a box under the eves of the attic. YUP! Here it is, with its one red eye and the long white tail. Now, where is the software – not that it matters because I think the OS it ran on is all but dead.

Years ago, I’d hacked my Que Cat to provide cleartext information when scanning, so I could use it to scan in book codes into a home library db. I’m not the steadiest of hands and it was kinda’ flakey. And then got iPhone with bar code scan. Oh well.

The Borders in my city closed recently. I’ve always loved browsing in book stores, but they seem to be dying a slow death.

Maynard Handley
February 19, 2011 at 7:05 pm

Of course it was obvious 10 YEARS AGO that a substantial problem with a place like Borders was that I’d go in and not be able to find a book. The obvious solution would be to have multiple kiosks in every store, DONE WELL, by people who know more than a 3 month flash course, that would allow you to find where a particular book in on the floor (and similar books, and books by the same author, etc, etc — all the paraphernalia Amazon does so well).

Well, it’s ten years later. When I was at Borders a few days before Christmas, looking for a particular book as a gift, there was STILL no such kiosk in the store.

Does this matter?
Well, suppose you are any other sort of retailer, say Ralphs, Home Depot, REI, Frys. Customer comes in, wanting to buy a particular item. Can they EASILY find that item? Answer right now is no, in any one of those stores. Meanwhile, technology moves on — kiosks are 2000. What I expect from a half-way competent retailer today is that I walk in, my iPhone can connect (without any sort of login crap) to the store’s wifi network, and I can get the Amazon type experience on the phone — I can ask where a particular item is, can have alternatives suggested, etc etc. And I expect a decent map, and use of GPS, to direct me to the shelf, not some crappy 8-bit pixellated gif that looks like it was put together on an Apple II in 1978.

Is anyone offering this today, in the real world? No, which might be why Loehmann’s is closing stores all over LA, while SmartBargains.com continues to increase its customer base, among bargain hunting clothes shoppers every day. Likewise for Zappos. We’re not just talking books here.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The Silicon Valley startup that creates the software infrastructure to handle this, with a subsidiary to handle operational details like selling and installing a turn-key system to Ralphs, could be the SAP of 2020.

Bill H
February 19, 2011 at 7:40 pm

Cool, and it will solve the unemployment problem with all those inventory personnel inputting data about where the cough drops are this week, in each store – except for those clever and rich enough to stack their bricks and mortar in exactly the same layout for every location.

Maynard Handley
February 19, 2011 at 8:24 pm

There is this thing called RFID…

This is kinda my point. If retailers are too damn stupid to figure out how to provide a better experience than their internet counterparts, they damn well deserve to go bust.

Jonathan
February 20, 2011 at 8:54 am

There’s also this thing called a plan-o-gram… chain stores generally dictate from above where the inventory goes, right down to which inches along the shelf it’s allowed to occupy. So any program that can grok a Visio document can easily enough map the store.

I currently work in retail, and you are correct about the plan-o-gram. That said, not every store has exactly the same square footage and layout. Chains have different size stores in different markets. But once you know where the relevant plan-o-grams are located within that particular store, you should be able to locate the inventory therein.

The Suburbs
February 20, 2011 at 2:22 am

Can you seriously not find what you’re looking for at REI within a couple minutes? Seriously? No, I mean, seriously?

Trent
February 26, 2011 at 8:53 pm

In this day and age minutes, even seconds, count.
I don’t mind browsing REI or other specialty stores and can always ask a knowledgeable sales associate.

Ralph’s on the other hand….. Can’t get out of there too soon.

Esteban Trabajos
February 20, 2011 at 6:36 pm

That idea will never work if you are using an iPhone3G running iOS4 on the AT&T network (with another 8 months to go to avoid early termination fee)!! Man, my phone sucks. My network sucks. I guess I’ll have to wander aimlessly in REI for another 8 months. Damn it, I want an Android!!

Lord Balto
February 26, 2011 at 1:58 pm

Huh? The Borders I go to has computers around the store (you know, those boxy things with keyboards?) that you can use to find books. My problem with Borders was always that everything I wanted had to be ordered because they only stocked the latest and hottest stuff. Why not just go home and get it used from ABE?

Eno
March 2, 2011 at 7:00 am

Of course, Barnes and Noble have had those kiosks for years.

jelabarre
April 25, 2012 at 11:28 am

Sure, so you put the onus on **ME** to have that grossly overpriced “smartphone”, along with it’s even **more** grossly overpriced “data plan”, simply to look up the location of a product that the store should be bending over backwards to find. Yeah, thanks for nothing, buddy. If they want me to shop there, *they* should be providing any needed technology to make that happen.

Jormundgard
February 19, 2011 at 7:35 pm

I spent a lot of time and money at that Fort Lauderdale Border’s when I was in high school. Fifteen years later, I just have too many books that I am busy reselling on Amazon. I learned my lesson: stop buying books and start downloading them.

Depends on the type of book. For technical and RPG game manuals, I find hard copy works better, even with an iPad. Also, I collect Web comic collections in hard copy. Even though I’ve already read the stories online. I’m weird.

warpwiz
February 19, 2011 at 7:42 pm

This is but the beginning of the end of print as a major force in American media. It IS too easy to buy a book online. And the eBook will continue to marginalize hardcopy versions. If digital can kill Kodachrome, then how far behind can paper-based media be?

When the internet infrastructure becomes so expensive that the disappearing middle class decide that it’s a luxury they can’t afford. The only real winner from Amazon, et al, is UPS and the Post Office. Well, and the oil companies. The real cost on delivery is an order of magnitude higher. Eventually, local warehousing will be so much cheaper than shipping onsies and twosies across country. It likely already is, but the fact doesn’t fit the meme.

So far as Borders goes, about a decade ago they shifted from engaged booksellers to minimum wage students. That’s when Barnes&Noble began to make headway. Nook helped, of course.

The Amazon model only works when 1) there is a wealthy middle class who can afford their side of the sales model and 2) sufficient resources to support the full cost of distribution. Prepare for a paradigm shift, the middle class is fast disappearing, and so is the petroleum. The planet’s population has doubled in the last 50 years. It’s still growing, and assuming that the lifestyle of the 1%-ers is for everyone. Ain’t gonna happen; doesn’t even happen here.

While I agree with your basic premise, I think what you are missing is that in the near future, books will be delivered electronically via the internet. Then there is no need for shipping costs and warehouse costs. Reduce the overhead cost for the seller, make books (and magazines) an impulse purchase with near instantaneous delivery, and there is no longer a need for brick and mortar book stores. Add in some devices that deliver a “traditional” reading experience, and the book store is completely dead.

So, revenue was less that 0 between 2003 and 2006? There’s something wrong with that chart.

Steve Dean
February 19, 2011 at 8:15 pm

I remember when small bookstores at the mall like B Daltons were the norm.

I never understood the 3 story ginormouse Borders and Barnes & Nobles.

I am going to resist ebooks as long as possible.

Stuart in Austin
February 21, 2011 at 2:16 pm

A senior editor from one of the science fiction houses explained it to me at a writing workshop about ten years ago. As the square footage of the store increases they sell more books per square foot.

This is not something they necessarily want, it is just the way that humans behave. It is the rational behind all of the big box stores.

Winkhorst
February 26, 2011 at 2:14 pm

The more books, the more likely you are to find something you want?

Paul Allen
February 19, 2011 at 8:28 pm

One more victory for me, one more no-show for Robert Young.

Larry T
February 19, 2011 at 8:59 pm

These days I prefer to do my book browsing at a good used bookstore. Fortunately, there are several good ones here in Jacksonville, FL where they take my used books in trade and I get at least some credit to purchase more books. Sort of trumps the collection mania of some folks I know. Not only do they have books but DVD movies and audiobooks, etc. The final plus is the fact you are supporting a local business that hire local staff. It’s truly amazing the selection and variety available, highly recommended.

Like Larry, I love browsing second hand book stores and book exchanges. It’s something we’re also turning into a fun family ritual, along with bi-weekly library trips. I don’t see e-books taking that joy away from me, although I’m already reading e-books in some cases . It’s not just about the information in the book, it’s about an entire tactile and emotional experience – spending some quiet hours in the library, stumbling on an interesting author, finding notes on the inside cover of a used book, wondering where it’s been and what it’s story is.

Ironically, also, the demise of brick and mortar stores may be beneficial in societies where new book costs have skyrocketed. It’s a lot cheaper to stock a warehouse and have people buy online, than having to keep up stores around the country. If passed on to the consumer, cost savings could mean that school and community library book budgets may in fact go further, giving more people access to a wider variety of books. For contrary as we may think, not every person in this world has an e-book reader or can afford one.

YetAnotherBob
February 28, 2011 at 10:45 am

For a book reader, I just use my phone. Most adult people in the world (>1/2)have or can get phones. In the future, this will be more so. The newer phones use a screen for tactile input. No buttons, just virtual ones. There will soon be single chip phones that use Android. Touch screen costs are going down. The phone is the book reader of the future.

The phone is small enough I can always have it with me. I charge it every night anyway, and it lasts me through out the day. Why buy an expensive slow reader? Good enough is good enough for me. It is true, I usually only see a couple of paragraphs at a time, but, I can adjust the type size and contrast to my personal taste.

That is hard to do with a paper book. Plus, all the classics are free online. Within a generation, I expect to see the insane copyright extensions of the last 100 years repealed. Then, books from the last 100 years will be available. Best sellers will probably always be expensive. But, books that are out of print should be free.

charlie
February 22, 2011 at 9:48 am

If all the book stores selling them for the first time go out of business, and thus the general population of new books goes down or goes away, where are the 2nd hand books going to come from, and what will be the fate of the 2nd hand bookstores?

Paul
February 25, 2011 at 9:14 pm

There will be more 3rd, 4th, 5th… hand books. I don’t know the numbers, but there must be a bunch of people buying used books, reading them, and reselling them, both locally and online. Same with DVD’s, etc.

What I wonder about is what happens to the quality of stuff that gets donated to thrift stores. These days, I sort my unwanted books into a few piles – donate, maybe sell on Amazon, definitely sell on Amazon, give to a friend. I used to have fewer piles, and more books went to the thrift store. It’s also gotten harder (if not impossible) to find a local store that pays much for my more desirable books.

Hub
February 19, 2011 at 10:22 pm

In Canada we have Chapters / Indigo. All their stores have kiosk were you can order the books they don’t have in stock and pick up in the store. You can also order on the website. Usually it is just cheaper than in store. And also they don’t even have the same inventory.

If they kill their stores, they still have the online store.

The other alternative is Amazon.ca

Charlie
February 19, 2011 at 10:41 pm

Outsourcing their website to Amazon, in retrospect, seems like a incredibly stupid thing for them to have done.

Jeremy Chappell
February 20, 2011 at 6:00 am

I’m curious Bob, what “IT Books” did you buy? I sometimes buy the kind of “Geek history” kind (your own springs to mind – what a suck up, eh?) but I don’t tend to buy that many that are “about something current”.

The problem seems to be that for the stuff I’m really interested in, the book is “coming soon”, or if not it’s about “the version before the version before the one you have”. In short, I find IT moves faster than books.

So, what ya reading Bob? Is it worth reading?

DGF
February 24, 2011 at 3:34 pm

It wasn’t Bob: “A longtime reader checked-in today…”

DGF

YetAnotherBob
February 28, 2011 at 11:01 am

tech books do get outdated quickly. Small screen size makes for problems with schematics. But, text translates well. I look online for many topics. IEEE has a lot available online. So does ARRL and NFPA. These are paid membership groups, but that is what it takes to get that kind of content. The books in paper are usually as expensive as the membership anyway. Most tech manuals are also available on line. Most standards groups have the documents available as paper prints, or in digital form.

Printers now print from digital anyway, so the digital format is always available. They just have to figure out how to sell it to you.

To be relevant for the next 20 years or so, you might want to get a desktop with a large screen. The biggest problem I see is for full sized plans in the field. Even a large laptop is not as good as a 36X42 plan (E size). Though a good pan and zoom helps. The paper also takes abuse better. tablets may change some of this though. A good high resolution 17″ screen seems to work well for many design drawings though.

One Architect I worked for tried experimentally to put a set of plans out as linked 8 1/2 X 11 inch sketches. It was difficult to work with. Large building plans and schematics will probably be the last things to go.

For anything you need professionally, remember to back it up.

Stephen Johnson
February 20, 2011 at 6:35 am

Many towns had their downtown shopping areas essentially wiped out by malls and/or Wal-Mart and their associated satellite strip centers (the kind of shopping ecosystem where Borders could be found).

Now we see that many of these places are in the early stages of atrophy, many due to competition from on-line stores.

What will we be left with in 10-20 years? Grocery, drug stores and super centers. Everything else supplied by Fedex and UPS from on-line distributors.

Downtown areas will rebound as service centers where you can go to restaurants, get personal services like massages, pedicures and things that can’t be delivered on-line. Think of small tourist towns as the model and everything else will just go away…

[…] I, Cringely: A longtime reader checked-in today with one more story of Internet generational change. We used […]

Rick Beetham
February 20, 2011 at 7:49 am

I have a Kindle3 now and absolutely love it… however the death knell for stores was ringing long before my Kindle came along…

I too am from Canada, and we do indeed have Chapters/Indigo (Chapters used to be a great store, with great selection and atmosphere – not so much now…. but I digress).

Those stores, for the most part, now carry mainly two types of books: those that are “in demand” either by current fad/theme (like Windows 7 or Vampires) or booklists (from Oprah and others); and those by discount, which really aren’t “selling” anywhere.

For all other books they have their helpful kiosks from which you can order a book and have it delivered to the store for later pick up.

So a few years back I was in desperate need of some quick reference books for PHP5 and CSS and amazingly they had something that fit! However I was also looking for a historical novel by an author that my wife liked (name/author now forgotten)

They didn’t have it “in store” but a helpful clerk took me to a terminal and found it on their on-line store. I saw the price quoted and challenged him (the clerk) on it. It was TWICE the price of Amazon.ca (including Amazons shipping!)

His answer, when I told him the difference in price was, “Yeah I know. So do you want to order it?”

“Failures don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan”

Matt
February 20, 2011 at 8:44 am

I don’t know what it’s going to take, but somehow we’ve collectively got to become immune to the thinking that just because something is cheaper, it’s better.

I swear I’m not trying to be mean as nearly all of us are similarly guilty at this point, but the obvious meta-rip-off you’ve perpetrated in the story is that Amazon did nothing whatsoever to earn your sale. You made use of the Borders and their personnel to find the book, but somehow failed to see the value in that or any of the things related. Even that’s not Borders fault, right? If Amazon is so great and deserving, then why didn’t you go there first?

Perhaps to appreciate something, we have to lose it first?

Well, say goodbye to more and more local jobs the more you shop on the internet. Economically, it’s fairly bad now in most of the country — what do you think this scenario looks like after another 10 years of this grind?

China’s already got most of our manufacturing jobs – putting the vast majority of our goods (followed shortly by a majority of our money) on the wrong side of the Pacific Ocean, requiring huge amounts of fuel to bring them over here for sale. (We know the Pacific is the biggest ocean, right?) Do we have a lot of believers in “unlimited oil” or something?

Maybe this story adds up to greater efficiency for the book/publishing industry, but that’s taking a pretty narrow view of the “click of death” phenomena.

I couldn’t agree with your more; not to take awya the fact that as a true journalist/blogger, Rob also makes his points in his admissions almost as much in his reporting – which is why I’ve sucribed for so long.

I often go to my local B&N and read the magazines; since I have to keep up with so many trade journals as well artistic and music related magazines, it’s cost prohibitive for me to buy all of them. B&N let’s me sit down in a corner somewhere and grab a stack, fliping through for up to an hour or so. Unmolested. But I feel obligated to buy a few, and also feel like I am geting a value because I’m not buying a whole magazine for one article. (And on average, the stuff I buy is around 35-45 bucks worth.)

Try to think of another bricks and mortar that allows such a practice.

If we’re not going to reward that kind of customer service and just use them for their CS and then app them away, then we don’t get to lament their passing as if we’re not to blame.

This article should serve as a cause and effect wanring that if we don’t value good customer service in the pre sales phase, we’re going to be doomed to lowest price hell. Amazon doesn’t see you face to face or care how your day was. As a small business man myself, this concerns me.

Matt
February 20, 2011 at 9:22 am

Indeed, I’ve been lurking/reading here for years (way before separation from PBS). Don’t get me wrong about Bob – love him! 🙂

(BTW, my original comment was about the “long time reader” quote Bob had in his post….second comment was about Bob’s words)

-Matt

Matt
February 20, 2011 at 9:18 am

Bob, forgot to call out the way you couched the story.

This is not – as you suggested – taking out the middle men, or any other such thing. Borders, BN, etc are the ones who did the disintermediating, thank you.

And referring to a reality where people don’t “have to” go to a bookstore is euphemistic, no? The reality would be more like those people “have never had the opportunity.” Further, most communities have had local lending libraries for decades. We’ve never “had to” make a trip to a bookstore or the resulting purchase to get a book.

Borders-Amazon is retailer-to-retailer competition. People aren’t buying further up the supply chain than Borders/BN/etc. (Remember when there were still actual locally-owned, local bookstores???)

Every dollar we spend should be thought of as a vote for what you’re buying and who/where you’re buying it from. Be careful what you vote for – instead of being a “nice option” it might be all you’re left with.

Your longtime reader thinks he is oh-so-clever with his smart phone. Maybe with maturity he will realize what he has done. Here’s a hint – if you look over your shoulder before scanning the book then you know what you’re doing is wrong. So don’t do it.

Too many people take the attitude that they are “getting ripped off” because books cost more in the store. People complain about lack of customer service but they also complain about having to pay for it.

Obviously he finds the ability to browse books in person valuable, but thanks to his actions we will all lose access to that service.

On a related topic, it’s also worth something to take the book home immediately instead of going home empty-handed and waiting for your shipment to arrive.

Scott
February 21, 2011 at 11:29 am

To Joseph…

“Here’s a hint – if you look over your shoulder before scanning the book then you know what you’re doing is wrong. So don’t do it.”

If the fellow had left the store, gone to his car, fired up a laptop and checked Amazon.com’s website, would that have been wrong? What if he’d driven home first to check from his home computer? What if he’d gone into the parking lot and called Amazon’s 800 number to ask? Do you consider those evidence of moral decay too? The only difference between doing what he did, and physically comparison-shopping at two different stores, is that he didn’t have to leave the store to do it. I doubt he felt what he was doing was in the least ethically questionable, I certainly don’t think it was, and I am at a complete and utter loss to understand how you do.

“Too many people take the attitude that they are ‘getting ripped off’ because books cost more in the store. People complain about lack of customer service but they also complain about having to pay for it.”

So if the store has awful customer service — as many Borders I have been to are guilty of — am I allowed to complain about paying too much then?

Joseph, old sock, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were the manager of a chain bookstore.

Michael Duke
March 8, 2011 at 7:01 pm

Hang on, if the comparison shopping had come up with a difference that was REASONABLE then maybe the purchase would go ahead. But to be half the price of a book that is on special including shipping from Amazon that is not a small amount of difference is it?

If the difference was 20-30%, which considering that Borders was having a sale is not unreasonable thin I for one would have brought in the store, but to be twice the price including the sale discount it is not reasonable to expect that the purchase was made in store.

If you could go and test drive a car at a dealer with a flash coffee machine and get a price after haggling of $40,000 would you still buy it if going to a wholesale website that same car, delivered in a few days was $18,000? I think you would take the $18,000 option as would most of us. Now if the car was $21,000 on the dealer what then?

People will pay a REASONABLE mark up for local and personal service plus right now delivery but we will not be ripped off.

Joel
February 20, 2011 at 12:08 pm

The best buggy whip company in the US made the best buggy whips, right up until they closed the doors!

You can be the best at what you do, but if nobody wants what you do then there is no reason for you.

Matt
February 21, 2011 at 9:28 pm

The buggy-whip people didn’t go out of business because someone else was selling (Chinese, if at all possible) buggy-whips, without a storefront, on Amazon.

Instead, for them, there was simply nothing left to whip.

-Matt

YetAnotherBob
February 28, 2011 at 11:13 am

You can still buy buggy whips. And carriages. They are just harder to find. Demand is maybe a quarter of what it was 150 years ago.

jelabarre
April 25, 2012 at 12:47 pm

The best buggy-whip company didn’t go out of business, they just started selling to the S&M market instead…

Dean
February 20, 2011 at 3:09 pm

Bob’s anonymous reader got snookered by the same kind of misleading pricing used by the airlines. Borders went to the trouble of shipping the book to their store where you can pick it up, pay for it and walk out with it right then and there. Amazon’s price didn’t include shipping, of course it’s cheaper!

Booksellers have had a bit of the airline model for ages: want to get this bestseller now, in hardcover? Pay $10 or more extra; or you can wait for 6 months or a year until it comes out in paperback. But with print-on-demand technology, the pitch could go like this: Oh, you wanted a picture on the cover? cha-ching! Margins on every page? cha-ching! Page numbers? cha-ching! High-resolution printing with a classy typeface? cha-ching! et cetera…

Dr John
February 21, 2011 at 5:44 am

In the UK we lost Borders a couple of years ago. We’re left with Waterstones, part of HMV. I’m prepared to pay a bit extra to get the book I want on the day I want, but not an extra $ 15 per $ 30 book! Even Waterstones doesn’t get my business.

Selection on Amazon is much better anyway, and in my field Borders and Waterstones doesn’t stock many.

eBooks – downloaded a couple and printed them off. Paper is just so much nicer to read from that I prefer to buy books, especially Accidental Empires….

francis
February 21, 2011 at 7:00 am

I like reading books on my Sony reader or my ePad ($100 iPad clone, running Android), but sometimes, in the case of tech books, I do print the eBooks. Laser printers are so cheap and fast now. I bought a Brother for my home network because all the printing the kids were doing on inkjets was burning a lot of money . . . I can print 3000 pages on the Brother per laser cartridge – and 3rd party compatible cartridges for it are about $25.

francis
February 21, 2011 at 6:57 am

Well I know people who go to bookstores, find books they like, scan the barcodes with their iPhones and buy them from Amazon online. A couple of days later the books arrive at their doorstep. It’s cheaper, but they do have to wait two days, instead of getting instant gratification. Savings of 30% or more though, and in most cases they don’t pay sales tax, because it’s shipped from out of state.

But something no online retailer can do is put my purchase in my hand NOW – I might save a couple bucks, but have to wait several days (or weeks).

Borders, Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, etc etc are all ahead in the immediacy of delivery.

YetAnotherBob
February 28, 2011 at 11:18 am

If you like Science Fiction, Baen Books will sell you the ebook direct from the publisher. Very reasonable too. You can have it right now.

Some books are free from them that way. That’s how they get you hooked on a series. I read several that way.

More publishers need to discover this. paper is optional. So are stores.

John
February 21, 2011 at 7:04 am

We all know about Amazon. One of the things that really impressed me with Amazon in their early days was their ability to listen. They were really tuned into their customers and used feedback to improve their service.

A few years ago another improvement in book sales emerged — half off books. eBay and Amazon made the sale of used books easy and a big business. There was a market need, they listened and turned it into a nice service. Today when you want to buy a book from Amazon you have several choices — new, used, electronic.

Borders could have done this. They chose not to. They didn’t listen to the market. They didn’t think outside of their box. It is sad.

A few months ago my son needed a book for school. I went to Borders website and found our local store had the book. Through the website I was able to reserve the book. I received a confirmation the book was ready for pickup. I went to the store — no book! They checked their inventory system and found a copy of the book at another local Borders. They called the store and had it reserved for me. I drove to that store — no book! We finally found the book at a third Borders.

After that experience I met with my son’s teacher. I found out I was not the only parent who had to spend a half day driving all over town looking for a book. The teacher had made arrangements with Borders to get enough books for his class. He thought they were in the store ready to be bought. The books arrived about 3 weeks late, too late for use in his class.

The language arts department at my kids school now provides parents with a list of all the books the kids will need each semester. I ordered 5 used books from Amazon over the holidays, and used Cliff Notes for two of them.

Our Borders has some terminals for customers to look up stuff. The only problem is it has a poor search engine. If you look closely you can catch the employees using Google and Amazon to search for books, then with exact information they can use Borders system to see if they have it.

The demise of Borders is a great loss. It was a result of ineffective management. Yes time and technology has changed to book industry. But there is still room for well managed book stores.

Winkhorst
February 26, 2011 at 2:37 pm

You might want to consider ABE (American Book Exchange) Books rather than Amazon. The prices tend to be a bit better, they have a better understanding of how to appraise the quality of books, and I suspect a larger number of the sellers are legitimate book dealers.

jck
February 22, 2011 at 7:14 am

Not sure what this is about. But borders blew it. they have been sinking since 99

D Tooth
February 22, 2011 at 7:33 am

Books should be a public service to the population.

If I’m remembering correctly the Toronto Public library is the largest on the planet with 11 million pieces- New York has 8 million.

I can go online and reserve/order for delivery to my local branch books they haven’t even bought yet! Very rarely have bought a book in the last 15 years as the system is so efficient.

Downloaded my first book from them in Dec – its set up exactly as if I had borrowed a paper copy as you only have it for two weeks and can return it by clicking return which I assume erases it off your drive and notifies the library that someone else can now download it.

[…] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » The click of death – Cringely on technology – Bob Cringely on the human effect of disintermediation. I fear that we will all end up like the punchline of the Bill Hicks sketch exhorting marketers to kill themselves because “They know price of everything and the value of nothing“ […]

eagerman
February 26, 2011 at 5:02 am

> So I went to IT to wander around, found a few books, figured the 20-40 percent > off scanned the bar code with my iPhone Amazon applet and bought with one
> click at Amazon. Even with the Borders discount Amazon was still cheaper.
> Sorry Borders, I did like your coffee, but One-Click is one kick too much.”

Smart, huh?
I call that parasitic. No more bar codes to scan after the last store has been
put out of business…

Winkhorst
February 26, 2011 at 2:40 pm

You want parasitic? Think of all those authors slaving away chasing the dream that they will someday be rich and famous only to get 10% of net on a book the publisher doesn’t even bother to advertise.

spade78
February 26, 2011 at 2:46 pm

On reflection, I now base a good chunk of my buying decisions on what sort of book I come across.

On the one hand, if its the information that I value then I gravitate toward the electronic version. If I can’t find an electronic version then it goes on my Amazon list, to be forgotten shortly after I find an electronic book with similar information. Books on programming, history, most books I read for leisure fall in this category.

On the other hand if its the actual form that I value then I’ll gladly pay the full price for that sort of book. Artbooks fall into that category where the size and presentation can’t be easily replicated on a computer. Also it makes a much better display piece on my coffee table.

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